Disney fashion and cosmetics collections

Cost: Tickets start at $57 for adults and $47 for children for a one-day pass. Tickets for D23 members start at $50 for adults and $42 for children. D23 offers free and paid memberships.

More info: d23.com

Disney's fascination with fashion and beauty goes all the way back to the Fairy Godmother giving Cinderella a royal makeover, Flora and Merryweather bickering over the color of Aurora's dress in "Sleeping Beauty" and the Evil Queen being jealous of Snow White's white-as-snow skin and red-as-blood lips.

In recent years, though, Disney has jumped into real fashion through collaborations with designers such as Alber Elbaz at Lanvin and with cosmetics companies such as MAC Cosmetics and Sephora.

That melding of animated film characters with designer creativity will be one of the highlights for fashion aficionados at the upcoming D23 Expo, a three-day Disney fan event in Anaheim.

Imagine Jenny Packham, a favorite of the Duchess of Cambridge, creating a gown for Rapunzel, Roberto Cavalli applying his prints to a Pocahontas ensemble, or Missoni interpreting Mulan's look in a contemporary vein. Those fantasy outfits will be on exhibit along with seven other dresses representing other Disney princesses.

As for the rest of the designers, most have turned out red carpet-worthy gowns, so creating a dress for a fairy-tale princess is hardly a stretch: Oscar de la Renta for Snow White; Valentino, Belle; Elie Saab, Aurora; Marchesa, Ariel; Escada, Jasmine; Versace, Cinderella; and Ralph & Russo, Tiana.

The D23 exhibit marks the first time these dresses will be viewed as a collection on this side of the Atlantic, after their debut at Harrods in London during the past holiday season.

Disney's foray into high style ramped up last year, when Lanvin's Elbaz designed a royal blue jewel-accented cocktail dress with peaked sleeves for Minnie for the 20th anniversary celebration of Disneyland Paris.

The mouse wasn't the only muse in the French theme park's soiree. German designer Michael Michalsky reimagined Cinderella's evening gown as an off-the-shoulder sapphire leather top with a matching layered chiffon skirt and white crystal-embellished platform booties. Jasmine got a couture upgrade with a sleeveless pleated gown that had a graceful flowing skirt from Italian designer Luisa Beccaria.

But there have been some controversial choices, too.

Last year, Barneys New York depicted Minnie and Daisy Duck as super-skinny to wear Lanvin and Dolce & Gabbana for the department store's annual holiday windows. That prompted a healthy body image advocate to start a petition on change.org titled "Barneys: Leave Minnie Mouse Alone," which garnered more than 145,000 signatures.

One-of-a-kind outfits inspired by characters tend to be novelties confined to exhibits, displays and events that attract Disney's fan base, but such designer ideas have yet to be translated into fully fleshed-out, ready-to-wear lines or capsule collections.

Makeup, in contrast, is gaining a mainstream following among not only Disney fans, but also cosmetics cognoscenti.

This year, there are two separate cosmetics lines featuring Disney characters.

The D23 Expo will feature an Ariel-themed Sephora pop-up shop, where makeup artists and manicurists are slated to give attendees makeovers with the new Disney Ariel Collection by Sephora. Ariel is the latest muse for the ongoing line of collaborative limited-edition cosmetics and nail colors by the beauty emporium, following other princesses Jasmine and Cinderella. The line is available at sephora.com this month and in Sephora stores in September.

At the same time, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is unveiling Fiery Spirit – the third collection in its relatively new private label cosmetics line, Beautifully Disney – at D23, according to Lisa Bergman, beauty merchandiser for the line. "The goal of the Fiery Spirit color palette is to be a transition between summer and fall," Bergman said. "It has hot bright colors and borderline jewel tones."

Unlike the Sephora collaboration, Beautifully Disney nail colors and cosmetics are not tied to one princess; instead, the line has a broader theme that applies to more than one character. The first two collections, for example, are called Wickedly Beautiful and Unlock the Spell.

Other differences: Beautifully Disney is sold at select Disney theme parks and resorts – including Disneyland and Downtown Disney – as well as at disneystore.com, and is available for a longer period.

A fourth collection, Fantasy in Flight, will debut in November.

Beautifully Disney inspired a pair of Long Beach nail artists to blog recently about having a little creative fun with the Unlock the Spell collection. Sisters Donne and Ginny Geer, manicurists at Hey, Nice Nails! (heynicenails.com), used three hues – Let Your Hair Down, Beautiful Bayou and Provincial Mademoiselle – to paint tiny flowers and palm fronds on each nail.

The Geer siblings gave the nail art a fitting Disney-flavored name: Jungle Cruise.

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